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| What You Need: |
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½ pound raw shrimp
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small bits, plus 3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons finely chopped green bell peppers
¼ teaspoon curry powder
½ cup soft fresh crumbs made from homemade-type white bread, pulverized in a blender or finely shredded with a fork
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley
1½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Four 12- to 16-ounce flounder, cleaned, with the heads removed but with the tails intact
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| How To Cook: |
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1. First make the stuffing in the following manner: Shell the shrimp. Devein them by making shallow incisions down their backs and lifting out the black or white intestinal veins with the point of the knife.
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2. Wash the shrimp under cold running water, pat them completely dry with paper towels and chop them into ¼-inch pieces.
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3. In a heavy 8- to 10-inch skillet, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter bits over moderate heat. When the foam begins to subside, add the shallots, celery and bell peppers and, stirring frequently, cook for about 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft but not brown.
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4. Stir in the curry powder, then add the shrimp and stir the mixture over moderate heat for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the pieces of shrimp are firm and pink.
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5. Add the bread crumbs, the parsley, ½ teaspoon of the salt and the black pepper, and mix well. With a rubber spatula, scrape the entire contents of the skillet into a bowl. Taste for seasoning and set the stuffing aside to cool to room temperature.
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6. Preheat the oven to 450. With a pastry brush, spread 1 tablespoon of the melted butter evenly over the bottom of a shallow baking-serving dish large enough to hold the fish in one layer. Set aside.
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7. Wash the fish under cold running water and. pat them dry with paper towels. To prepare the flounder for stuffing, as shown above, place one at a time on its belly (light-colored side) on a cutting board.
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8. With a small sharp knife, make a 4- to 5-inch-long slit completely through the skin and top surface of flesh to the backbone of the fish, cutting from about 1 inch behind the head to within about 1 inch of the tail.
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9. With your fingers or the point of the knife, gently lift the top surface of the flesh away from the rows of small bones radiating from the backbone, to create pockets above and below the slit.
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10. Sprinkle the remaining teaspoon of salt inside the pockets formed in the flounder. Then fill the pockets and the space between them with shrimp stuffing, dividing the mixture equally among the four fish.
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11. Arrange the flounder side by side in the buttered dish and brush the tops with the remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the fish feel firm when prodded gently with a finger. Serve the stuffed flounder at once, directly from the baking dish.
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